Author: Don Wilde
Date: 10-04-02 00:20
Hi, Gang -
We've been busy here in New Mexico! Not only are a whole bunch of the members of NM_L_UG now running FreeBSD, we've also been busy deploying into a local middle school.
I approached the LUG about joining me at the school at the beginning of the fall, and I've gotten a great response. Not only have two other guys actively joined me in visiting the school once a week, but the members have responded enthusiastically with donations of equipment. It seems Gen 2 component-PC equipment is very readily available for donation now. My office is full of it; we have 40 486-class machines and 6 dual-Pentium and dual-PPro server machines to clean up and install at the school.
The school's first response when we approached them was that they wouldn't touch it, but we convinced them that we intended to offer our help in maintaining things on a continuing basis. The fact that we agreed to visit the school on a regular basis AND work directly with kids and teachers was the kicker. Now we're starting to get official APS support above and beyond what the teachers and admins of the school have been giving us. The future of our program looks very bright, as does the future for these kids we're helping.
To make a year-long saga short enough to be readable, we're now in like Flint. We just had a visit from the school district's coordinator for all career-related projects and his eyes were misty as he told us we are doing everything right, and we're definitely on the leading edge of curriculum for kids. He said he's been trying for seven years to create such a program -- at the HS level -- and here we were doing it right under his nose at the _middle_ school level.
I've got a website going for my education-related gigs, http://www.Meta-Learn.com. It's got lots more info on the Open ReSource Project (ORSP) for those who'd like to replicate our work in their own area.
|
|
